Relocating to one of Moscow's best known public spaces,
Garage Contemporary Center will be exposed to a much larger and
diversified audience.

The project consists of the renovation of the famous 1960s
Vremena Goda (Seasons of the Year) restaurant, a prefabricated
concrete pavilion which has been derelict for more than two
decades. Structurally sound it preserves the "collective" aura of
the Soviet era: it is a sober and rigorous public space adorned
with tiles, mosaics and bricks.

The existing concrete structure will be enclosed with a new
facade consisting of a translucent double layer polycarbonate that
will accommodate a large portion of the building's ventilation
equipment, leaving the exhibition spaces free. This facade will be
lifted 2.25 metres from the ground in order to visually reconnect
the pavilion's interior to the park.

Image courtesy OMA

The design preserves original Soviet-era elements, including a
large mosaic, tiles, and brick, while incorporating a range of
innovative architectural and curatorial devices.

Image courtesy OMA

Image courtesy OMA

The entrance to Garage Gorky Park is marked by two large facade
panels that slide upwards to create a view through the building
from the park and frame the art in the lobby's double height space.
A public loop on the lower level will connect the bookshop,
mediatheque, auditorium and café, which is envisioned as an
informal living room with Soviet era furniture.

Image courtesy OMA

The building offers two levels of unobstructed open space that
will be dedicated to exhibitions, organized around two circulation
and service cores. The ground floor, with a height of 5.65 meters,
will function as an experimental zone, where exhibition programs
will share space with public events in the lobby, as well as with
educational and recreational facilities, and storage spaces. The
upper level, with a height of 3.7 meters, is conceived as a more
conventional exhibition space for paintings, sculptures, video,
photography and other media.

Image courtesy OMA

Image courtesy OMA

Image courtesy OMA

While the existing walls in the upper level will keep their
brick and green tile cladding, OMA has designed hinged white walls
that can be folded down from the ceiling, creating an instant white
cube when an exhibition demands a more neural environment.

Image courtesy OMAHinged Panels Up

Image courtesy OMAHinged panels Down

A 9x11 meter opening in the floor of the upper level creates a
double height space (10 meters) for the lobby, allowing extra large
sculptures to be displayed. During exhibitions that don't require a
double height space, the opening can be covered by a light metal
grid that can be walked on, otherwise hoisted up to the
ceiling.

OMA's design includes exhibition galleries on two levels, a
creative center for children, shop, café, auditorium and
offices.

Garage Center for Contemporary Culture was founded in 2008 at the
Konstantin Melnikov designed Bakhmetevsky Bus Garage. Relocating
from a semi-industrial neighborhood in the north of Moscow to one
of the city's best known public spaces, Garage will be exposed to a
much larger and diversified audience. After three years of
cultivating progressive culture, it will cohabit with mass
culture.